Controversial anti-violence group CeaseFire awaits new leader

Candice Kane, acting director of CeaseFire Illinois and chief operating officer of chief operating officer of CeaseFire partner CureViolence, says the search for a new CeaseFire director likely won’t be completed for a few months. (Alex Garcia, Chicago Tribune)

With its director gone and its controversial partnership with the city concluded, the anti-violence group CeaseFire Illinois has begun a crucial year in which it must find new leadership and will see the results of a study into whether its unorthodox methods are effective.

Under director Tio Hardiman, CeaseFire became a high-profile attempt to address street violence, featured in the award-winning documentary "The Interrupters," about the group's "violence interrupters" who have street credibility in crime-ridden neighborhoods and are trained to quell gang conflicts.

Hardiman's time as CeaseFire's leader came to an end after he was arrested by Hillside police in May on a domestic battery charge, accused of beating his wife. The charge was dismissed by a Cook County judge, but the University of Illinois at Chicago, which runs CeaseFire, decided not to renew his contract.

The move was a blow to many of CeaseFire's workers because Hardiman was the face of the group — never shy to get in front of the cameras to claim its successes and demand that CeaseFire get as much credit as the police in reducing crime.

Hardiman's old position has since been held by Candice Kane, who does not want the job permanently because of her regular duties as chief operating officer of CeaseFire partner CureViolence. While Hardiman often cites his childhood in public housing and his knowledge of the street, Kane's approach is more academic. She has a law degree and a doctorate in community psychology.

She is being assisted by Jalon Arthur, a former outreach worker with the group who, like Hardiman, is attuned to life on the streets.

The search for Hardiman's permanent replacement has not even begun, and likely won't be completed for a few months, Kane said.

In an interview with the Tribune, Kane explained that CeaseFire would benefit from another leader with street credibility and the ability to win over the high-brow circles of fundraisers and politicians who control CeaseFire's fate. That would depend, she said, on "their ability to relate to multiple groups of people, how comfortable they are in the neighborhood as well as how comfortable they are in the boardroom asking someone for money."

Hardiman, who is a long-shot candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, has told the Tribune he felt betrayed when UIC decided not to renew his contract.

In a recent interview, he said he believes the group has been feeling his absence.

"I know it's been hard for them to find somebody to fill my shoes," he said. "A lot of people believe in CeaseFire because of me. ... I'm Mr. CeaseFire. That will never go away."

Since its inception in 2000, CeaseFire has been controversial, especially in the eyes of Chicago police officers who don't trust the group's workers because many have criminal backgrounds.

That's why it was surprising to many when the city forged a first-of-its-kind, $1 million contract with CeaseFire in summer 2012, as Mayor Rahm Emanuel and police Superintendent Garry McCarthy looked for unconventional ways to reduce homicides, which eventually exceeded 500 that year.

CeaseFire used the city money to hire 24 employees — violence interrupters and outreach workers — and place them in North Lawndale on the West Side and Woodlawn on the South Side, two of the city's more dangerous neighborhoods. The yearlong contract was administered through the Chicago Department of Public Health, a nod to the group's philosophical underpinnings that violence is a public health epidemic.

By the end of October, funding for the two neighborhoods had run out and all 24 workers were out of jobs.

The city gave no indication that Hardiman's arrest had anything to do with its decision not to renew the contract. But the decision was seen as another example of how government bodies have cut off funding to the anti-violence group, which operates in 15 other communities across Chicago. Funding sources, primarily from the state, have been inconsistent over the years, forcing CeaseFire to shrink and build its staff repeatedly, making it difficult for the group to be effective.

"It's stressful for the workers, and it's stressful for the community," said Kane. "The impact of stress and trauma are not insignificant and it's something that we, particularly (for 2013), have been paying closer attention to."

Hardiman said research in past years that has billed CeaseFire as "a proven model," but that has failed to convince some of the group's most ardent critics. This is why UIC and the University of Chicago are in the midst of another study to evaluate the anti-violence group's performance.

Last fall, the McCormick Foundation awarded $50,000 in grant money to the schools to conduct the study. Researchers have been talking to residents, CeaseFire workers and "high-risk" youths with whom they have been in contact to gauge the group's impact, Kane said. The study also consists of statistical analyses. Results will be released this year.

In the meantime, the debate over CeaseFire's effectiveness continues. The group pointed to a 29 percent reduction in shootings and homicides over the past three years within "CeaseFire zones" as evidence of its progress. But others may attribute some of that improvement to police strategies, harsher winter weather in early 2013 compared with unseasonably warm conditions a year earlier, and about $100 million in overtime the city spent on Chicago police officers to work on their days off last year in some of the same areas where CeaseFire operates.

Kane believes the aim of the new study is to help CeaseFire find ways to have more of an influence in the neighborhoods it oversees.

"We're really trying to apply science and literature to what's going on (on the street)," she said. "For us, this past year, I think, has been one of learning and rethinking and really kind of sharpening the way that we're doing our work."